Now superimpose Kitchener’s face with that of England manager Roy Hodgson or Spain coach Vicente del Bosque, with their pointing fingers above the slogan: “I’m a bit short of players: Your country needs YOU.”

Long gone are the days when a manager would pick his international squad from a collection of players born in their homeland. War, ethnic conflict and the relentless march of globalization have changed all that.

Hodgson’s tenure as national coach - like so many of his predecessors' - has been largely defined by just how few players he has to choose from given the paucity of Englishmen now playing in the Premier League.

Desperate for success, clubs have used bumper television payments to stock their squads with talented overseas stars rather than developing their own players.

But there is hope on the horizon for Hodgson in the shape of a host of promising youngsters coming through the ranks. Youngsters like Saido Berahino of West Brom, who could break into the England senior team before next year’s World Cup in Brazil.

"Burundi is motherland to me," Berahino told Britain’s Daily Telegraph. "I will always be a Burundian regardless of what happens, even if I become a successful Premier League player.

"Playing for England is totally different. They have given me a second chance in life, provided my family with a different type of lifestyle.”

If Hodgson’s dour style of football has frequently been criticized - some have dubbed it “Hodgeball” - let it not be said the 66-year-old former Liverpool and Inter Milan coach has been found wanting in the future-proofing department.

“Belgium have already tried to call him up, Albania and Croatia too. I think he would be able to play for England because of residency in five years.”

Hodgson has admitted he would welcome a debate within England about naturalizing players.

"There's no doubt that he's a real talent and we have our eyes on him, but a lot will have to be discussed," Hodgson said of Januzaj’s sudden emergence.

"He's been with United for a long period of time and of course that discussion will have to be seriously debated before we start naturalizing players.

"Yes (he could play for England) down the line if he becomes naturalized or if he becomes a homegrown product."

Ilori is eligible to represent England as he was born in London and has yet to receive a senior call-up to the Portuguese national side, though he is already capped at under-18, under-19 and under-20 level for Portugal.

"I think I would like to stay loyal to Portugal as I've played in every age group for them,” Ilori, who recently arrived at Anfield in a deal worth £7 million, told the Liverpool Echo.

"But I would never close any doors and there is no decision to make yet. If I have the choice then it's not a bad choice to have."

Hodgson’s interest in Januzaj prompted groans of dismay from some leading English football writers on Twitter.

“No way should Januzaj play football for England even if it were possible - cricket, though, is another matter, we're not fussed about origins,” joked the Independent’s Glenn Moore.

“It suddenly created dozens of new countries and new football teams. War has meant others have found themselves in new countries with a new team, like Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who could have played for either Bosnia or Croatia.

“Januzaj's case is an example of the one hangover from that time. Kosovo is not recognized by the United Nations.

“Therefore its national football team is not recognised by UEFA. Because of the war there many Kosovars settled in Switzerland and Belgium. As they had no state is was easy for them to gain citizenship, or I should say easier.

Even the reigning world and European champions Spain have been looking at the small print of players’ nationality.

Having often reverted to playing without a traditional striker, Del Bosque could in the near future pick Atletico Madrid's Brazil-born forward Diego Costa, who has expressed a desire to play for Spain.

But not quite yet - last week the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said Costa cannot be called into Del Bosque’s squad until the necessary paperwork is completed.

“Today a player needs to have lived somewhere for five years. It used to be two. But FIFA had to change it as so many Brazilians were ending up in national teams around the world.

“That and countries like Qatar were filling their side with Uruguayans and Brazilians. If someone lives in a country for five years, learns the language and feels an affinity with the culture, why not? Identity is not so black and white anymore.”

soundoff(19 Responses)

Fikret

UEFA should let Kosovo National teal play freely!
Not only UEFA but also other sport organizations should let young people like this football players represent their own country Kosovo, but also in other sports like Majlinda Kelmendi the newest world champion in Judo!
Michel Platini, serbians and Russians one day should understand what sport stands for!
This young generation makes me proud to be Kosovan!

National teams should be again made only from those of their nationality. The system currently allows already rich and huge nations to freely pick from among their local talents and "buy people" from abroad. I can already see that using this system will make Bahrain and China football world champions in a century or less. Long gone are the good days of proper local teams, of great football like that of the time of the Golden Team from Hungary. You can't wholeheartedly cheer for your flag bearing team when you know it barely has any people in it that have your nationality, or perhaps are not even able to speak your language.

FIFA should change its rules to allow players from different nationalities represent a given country in football competitions.This will avoid scenarios where a good teams qualifies convincingly only to be disqualified for fielding in eligible players

This is an issue that doesn't make as much sense to a U.S. citizen, because we are all, in some way or another in this boat. Some of us could play, hypothetically, for Italy, or Poland, or Ireland, or China, or India, or Mexico as well as the US because of family immigration (this would require us actually being good enough at soccer).

It would not have the same feeling and emotions of the game,which would really loose credibility,a matter of fact the ball is round so let the coaches see what strategy the need to use so as to win a game of good football.example look at France their team does not give much emotion like the Argentinian and brazilians,that part should be respected.

I think allowing players who are born in a particular country to play for another country will discourage homegrown talents to play for their country as they will feel their football federation is opting to trust players who have originated from another country and not the homegrown players who are naturally born in that country.

Fifa's requirements I think are already stringent enough, at least for the time being. All these situations are a natural result of globalisation. It is funny that Brazil complains it when if you look at their team, they are the first to be benefit from having their best players in the best leagues. Do you think Dani Alves is the same player who came to Spain 10 years ago (a third of his total 30 years)? Or Marcelo? Or Diego Costa when he arrived with only 18 years old? My point is that all these players aren’t, from a pure football point of view, pure Brazilians. Or let’s take the case of Messi. Can he be considered 100% Argentinean (from a football perspective again) when he arrived in Barcelona being only 13 years old? So let’s not try to be too purist about the subject because in today’s globalized football situations like these are naturally normal.

UEFA and FIFA should recognize Kosovo and its sport as over 100 countries already did; US, Great Britain,Germany, Switzerland,Italy etc.
Kosovo will be having a great national team in the future b/c football is loved by everyone here and are many young talents.
Go Kosovo and our mother land Albania 🙂

The Kosovar Albanians are born talented sportsman, boxing, judo, karate, football, basketball we got everything, but we are not aloud to represent our Country. But we will Reprezent Albania.
The next 4/5 years Albanian Football team will be Number one in Europe. our future is coming, our enemys know that and we don't care.
Thanks CNN

Kosovars should play/cheer for Albania. They shouldn't want their own team. They should embrace Albanian Nationalism. But Im an American. We automatically think like Unionist. Maybe the rules should be tightened to prevent Diego Costas, but the US is a different animal. We have.military bases around the world. We produce a lot of so called .'Brown Babies' in Germany(Children who's fathers are African-American U.S. Servicemen).These children are U.S citizens from birth, and thus always aware of they are Americans. Especially when they look into a mirror.

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